Warlocked
by Holly Chase
Summary: "There are infinite infinities to our world and its inevitable parallels." In a world where Ariana Dumbledore never died: two boys have to save a Universe that never happened. AU - or is it?


_A.N. Thank you to Pam for beta-ing this. Believe me, this mess was a bomb-site before she got her spell-check on it. :)_

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**#Round 7**

Characters: Hugo and Scorpius

Genre: Friendship and adventure

Words: 3, 742

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**Warlocked**

The path was long and the sun was high in the sky, right over their heads. Shadows were clutching to the sparse trees and the feet of the twenty or so children that were stumbling towards the huge manor.

In the distance**, **rose like a huge wave saturated from the sky by its red bricked walls and spiked towers.

Hugo's feet were pinched into too-small lace-up shoes that were knotted so tightly that he was sure that he would have to cut them free.

He was near the middle of the group, not too far forward as to seem keen, but not so far back as to be labelled a layabout. Aberforth's words echoed inside his head: "_Watch that slippery brother of mine, boy, he'll warp your thoughts the second you get into that castle of his. "Aberforth's face twisted into a smile as he patted at the lump under Hugo's robes. "But you'll do the job, won't you m'boy?"_

Hugo reached under the folds of his robes into the specially sewn pouch he had stitched the evening before, something cold brushing against his fist. He gripped it securely; it fitted perfectly into the groove between his curled thumb and index finger.

The boy beside him jerked, as if from a trance. He looked at Hugo from head to foot, his eyes narrowed suspiciously with his lips pursed and brow furrowed. He held Hugo's gaze for three seconds before breaking off and staring at the spot where Hugo's hand was resting just beside his collar bone.

Hugo dropped the object immediately, brushing down his robes as if that was what he had been doing all along. The look the boy beside him was giving him said clearly that he was not fooled at all by the gesture, but he turned back to the castle.

Hugo did likewise and was gratified to notice that it seemed a lot closer than it had only ten minutes ago. From this distance**, **Hugo could see bustling figures rushing past the house and out in the huge fields surrounding the castle were ant-sized people strolling at leisurely paces around the grounds.

There was a rumbling sound from behind them, and as one, the group of children spun around, staring straight into the face of something huge and shiny with blaring lights stuck to its front, with people inside it pressed up against the window.

Frozen, Hugo wondered what he should do. He should run. He should already be running. But for some reason, his legs just refused to move.

"RUN!" someone was shouting, and Hugo nodded in the direction of the yell. He should run. He really should.

It suddenly occurred to Hugo that he was completely alone in the middle of the potholed path with some sort of monster baring down on him. He opened his mouth, maybe to scream, maybe to ask politely for someone to kick him, but all the air was knocked from his lungs at that very moment, and all he said was: "Ack."

They thudded to the floor. They, being Hugo and the grey-eyed boy he had been walking beside. Hugo watched in a kind of entranced shock as the beast thundered past them, churning up orange and brown dust as it sped towards the castle.

"I'm not sure I want to go and live in a place where almost running someone over is acceptable," said the grey-eyed boy in a stilted voice.

"And you're welcome," he added as an afterthought to Hugo.

"Thanks," said Hugo, scrambling to his feet and brushing himself down. "It was almost as if they didn't see me," Scorpius nodded.

Hugo checked his back, great, now he would have grass-stains all over his robes. That would make a wonderful first impression.

Now that the monster's threat had vanished, people were once more taking to the path and Hugo joined them along with the grey eyed boy.

"I'm Scorpius…Scorpius Kayde," said the boy, stumbling over his words in a way that made Hugo suspect he wasn't being entirely truthful with his name.

"Hugo Fisher," said Hugo as smoothly as he could, not quiet meeting Scorpius's eyes as they shook hands. He wasn't a particularly good liar, and the last thing he wanted was to get caught: "Nice to meet you."

"Ah, you have manners." Scorpius sounded rather too delighted by that. At Hugo's face, his eyes widened in an oops-did-I-say-that-out-loud way**,**and he quickly covered up by saying, "The boy behind me on the train here kept kicking my seat and swearing. I was a little scared I would be the only well versed person in the whole place."

"Right," said Hugo, turning back to the castle, which seemed no closer- in fact, if possible, it looked further away. He frowned, glancing at Scorpius who was kicking pebbles into the backs of other children's feet.

They made a plopping sound.

_Plop._

_Plop._

_Clunk_–"Ouch," said a boy, turning and glaring behind him. He rubbed the back of his head as he turned back to the front. Scorpius smirked, and Hugo was suddenly aware that this must have been the boy whose kicking had so annoyed Scorpius.

Hugo opened his mouth to say that the castle was now jumping back several miles for every two metres they walked when another boy beat him to it.

"Hey," everyone turned to a boy with cork-bottle glasses and dark hair pulled into a severe parting, who was pointing towards the castle. "Look, that car is already pulling up."

They looked and sure enough, the 'car' was already turning into the wide gravel drive.

"How?" muttered Scorpius, frowning and tapping his forehead as everyone began to shout about trickery and being sent on a fool's errand. Hugo wondered where they thought they were heading – a wizard's castle would be full of magic.

"I'll bet they're laughing their heads off in there," shouted a girl with red pigtails, face screwed up as if she was trying not to cry.

"Be quiet," said Scorpius. Hugo watched as his face crumpled in itself and paled; no one took the slightest bit of notice as the cries of outrage took a turn for the louder. "SHUT UP!" roared Scorpius, and finally there was quiet as everyone turned to stare at him.

"Thank you," said Scorpius, shoving his way to the front of his audience. "Now let me think."

And think he did, with great arm movements and moans of: "_WHY_?" that nobody tried to answer until finally with a cry of: "Idiot!" he smacked himself in the face.

"Our good friend Hugo here has hit the hail on the head!" he said, skipping to where Hugo was standing, frozen to the spot with an I-didn't-do-anything-promise expression plastered over his blunt features. "That car, the driver… it was precisely that!"

"Precisely what?" asked Hugo in a quavering voice when it seemed no one else was going to. He contemplated making a grab for his wand, but by that point Scorpius was doing some kind of jig, hauling Hugo in a lumbering fashion after him.

"Did you not say that it was as if the driver could not see you?" asked Scorpius, surprised, grey eyes widening. "Or was that just me? Sometimes my thoughts run away from me, see? But I could've sworn…"

"It was me," sighed Hugo.

"Ah." was it just Hugo or did Scorpius look slightly disappointed. "Good."

"I still don't get it," said the boy with glasses. "What does what he said," he jerked his head in Hugo's direction, "have to do with anything?"

"Everything…I'm sorry; I don't know your name."

"Paul."

"Thanks. _Everything, _Paul," said Scorpius. "Can't you sense it?"

Everyone stood quite still for a moment, Hugo included, as a wind picked up around them, blowing leaves towards the castle.

And suddenly Hugo saw it too.

"There are wards around the castle."

"Exactly!" crowed Scorpius. "Can't the rest of you feel the magic? It's really rather strong."

"I can't sense the magic," admitted Hugo, pointing, "but the leaves are being blown towards the castle and then being pushed sideways, like there's a huge fish bowl there."

"Good," Scorpius nodded as there was a murmur of realisation, "close, although it's more of a bubble because it's more pliable. You know?"

Hugo didn't, but he nodded anyway. It seemed the safer option.

"So how're we meant to get through?" asked a dark-haired boy.

"Ah, dear boy," Scorpius smiled, sounding patronising even though the boy was only slightly shorter than him. "All we need to do is stop focusing on the journey and think more of our destination."

"That's what I've been doing all afternoon," called a voice.

"But not this way you haven't," said Scorpius gleefully dancing as though it was the best fun he'd had in a long time. "Now focus completely on the building, imagine walking up to it. Got it?"

Hugo nodded.

"Then grab onto each other," Scorpius demonstrated by taking Hugo's hand first and another younger boy's,who was almost asleep on his feet.

A pretty-ish girl with pointed features took Hugo's other hand; Hugo was gripping Scorpius's hand tightly, palms sweating against the unusually cool skin of Scorpius's hand.

"Now think." Scorpius's voice sounded strong and sure. About half the girls in the line sighed, only the pressure of hands in theirs stopping them from fiddling with their hair. "Walk."

They took a step, and suddenly they were stumbling through the huge wrought-iron gates, spilling onto the drive. There was silence as Scorpius opened his eyes and sounding rather too surprised said, "Oh, it worked."

"They're here!" yelled a boy wearing long robes and carrying a pile of clothes. "The newbies are here!"

A bell sounded, clear and smashing into the air like a foghorn; it slammed in Hugo's ears. Scorpius fell to his knees, clutching his hands to his head.

"Strong magic," he muttered, still clinging to Hugo. "That man… magic fluctuations."

And then his eyes rolled back in his head, and he flopped into Hugo's arms like a huge, limp rag-doll.

A short man with grey hair pulled across a bald scalp and stout figure rushed out of the huge double doors, skidding down the steps before them. He looked them over, scanning them with a critical eye until he reached Hugo when he spoke for the first time.

"My dear boy, you appear to be holding someone in your arms," he said.

"Yes I am," said Hugo. "And it's really starting to become quite uncomfortable so…"

Before he had even finished speaking, two boys had removed Scorpius from his arms and brought him before the short man who looked at him distastefully. Hugo felt the sudden urge to defend the crazy boy who had got them there.

"Send him the infirmary," said the man, and they carried Scorpius up the steps as he turned back to the group who were suddenly a lot quieter and far more afraid now that their self-appointed leader had gone.

"I'm Professor Slughorn of Potions," said Professor Slughorn with a wide smile that dispelled all anxieties, Hugo though still had a seed of doubt in his mind.

This man worked for Dumbledore. That had to mean something.

"So which of you brave souls worked it out then?" asked Professor Slughorn, clasping his hands behind his back and rocking forwards onto his toes.

"Scorpius," said Hugo truthfully, nodding towards the building that towered far over his head, looking even bigger closer, "the boy you just sent to the infirmary."

"Oh." Professor Slughorn looked as though he had smelt something nasty.

Nope, Hugo didn't like him at all.

"Right then," he said. "If you all will just follow me…"

They were separated into groups of five - apart from Hugo's group where there were four, because Scorpius was still missing – and were just being set to work, peeling vegetables, when a woman rushed into the kitchens.

"He's asking for someone - Hugo Fisher?" she said, looking around the room.

Hugo didn't move, methodically stripping his carrot of its skin. He didn't want to miss out on anything that might get him closer to Dumbledore.

Nevertheless, Hugo still found himself being pushed towards the nursemaid, and then he sprinted after her up several flights of stairs that moved as they ran and spun dizzyingly.

They reached a plant with widespread leaves, like huge green saucers held falling from thick stems to the floor with the weight. Hugo followed the woman behind the plant, feeling ridiculous.

His mouth dropped open as he entered a huge, whitewashed room with tiled floors and starched bedspreads covering the metal rimmed beds. They were empty, but one where Scorpius sat, twiddling his thumbs. When he saw Hugo, he smiled, relieved, and motioned for Hugo to sit.

"You're a wizard, aren't you?" he muttered. Hugo nodded. "Good." Scorpius sat back. "I'm a sorcerer."

It was like Hugo had been struck around the head with a frying pan. His head reeled with all he had been taught about sorcerers – cruel, half-human, half-demon creatures who loved to watch others suffer – and tried to tally it with the boy sat before him.

Scorpius,for his part, began to hum as though he had no idea what he was.

"W-what?" stammered Hugo. "How?"

"It's quite simple," said Scorpius easily. "See, my parents are part of an organisation that opposes this."

"This what?" asked Hugo.

"This everything," said Scorpius. "Didn't you ever wonder where it all came from? _Haven't you ever seen the sky?_"

"Of course," said Hugo hurriedly, trying to pacify Scorpius, whose voice was rising with every word. "Totally clear. As always."

"Ah-hah!" Scorpius raised a finger triumphantly. "But it wasn't, was it?" By now Hugo was well and truly terrified, but he couldn't move because Scorpius's incredibly grey eyes held him fixed to the spot. The thudding of his heart was painfully loud in his ears as Scorpius licked his lips before speaking again.

"Hugo, do you believe in stars?" he asked.

And with that Hugo's fate was sealed.

"Yes," he breathed.

Scorpius smiled and Hugo was struck dumb as he began to explain.

"It's like a fluctuation in a rainbow," said Scorpius, frowning as he tried to put into terms that Hugo would understand. "You've heard about rainbows, right?" Hugo nodded. "Well think of each colour representing an earth in the rainbow cast in someone else's cloud, and that's the Universe.

"Only this world shouldn't exist. Something went wrong," said Scorpius. "Think of us as a kind of refraction off a colour –let's say red – in the rainbow, somehow it broke from its natural path and - _hey presto! _Here we are in a world identical to red, but without some key things. Like stars and clouds and rainbows. Got it?"

"I-I think so," said Hugo, trying to wrap his head around the ludicrous sentences Scorpius kept spouting and frowning as he realised that it made perfect sense to him. Almost like it was a puzzle piece that he had been missing, but had never noticed its absence before. He still had one question, though…

"You said we have no stars," said Hugo, pointing out of the window opposite Scorpius's bed. "What's that huge sun doing there?"

"That's the problem, right there," said Scorpius. "That's the pole of our mother-Universe. And we are the only thing circling it. Surely you know that it's not _right._"

Hugo did, suddenly; everything ignited as Scorpius lit up Hugo's shadowed world.

"There are infinite infinities to our world and its inevitable parallels," said Scorpius. "Only we aren't running parallel to anything. We're operating on our own stream, and I'm here to sort it out."

Hugo stared out of the window, his eyes cleared of haze.

"This- this doesn't exist," he said.

"Well, it does." Scorpius sounded slightly disgruntled that as though Hugo had missed the point of his speech. "It's just not meant to."

"But how do you _know_?" asked Hugo desperately, clinging to his existence.

"Some can remember the natural events of the time-stream we were meant to follow. Only a few though, and they were quickly outcast as 'sorcerers' because nobody wants a revolution. But, here we are; like phoenixes, we rise again from ashes." Scorpius reached for Hugo's arm. Hugo didn't move.

"And you're here to put the worlds back together," guessed Hugo.

"Correct-o-mundo," said Scorpius, grabbing hold of Hugo's hand. "And you're here to kill Albus Dumbledore."

They stared at each other in silence for a prolonged moment.

"Yes."

"Good, good," said Scorpius with a smile. "I think we can help each other here, Hugo. So how're you going to do it? Enchantment, spell?"

Hugo reached down his jacket, feeling for his pocket. Once his hand was inside it, he wriggled his fingers around, searching for the vial.

Coldness swept over him as he groped and found nothing.

"I've lost it," he said breathlessly, feeling the world crashing around him in huge waves. "I've lost the vial."

Scorpius cursed, jumping from the bed and shaking Hugo up and down as if he would be able to hear the lost phial rattling.

"Where?" asked Scorpius, pulling on his shoes.

"Um…" Hugo bit his lip, backtracking. "The way here, somewhere along the path."

"Let's go!" shouted Scorpius running towards the door, barging past the nurse who had just appeared in the room. Hugo ran after him, shoving out of the plant into Scorpius.

"Which way?" asked Scorpius looking left and then right.

"Don't you know?"

Scorpius gave Hugo a withering look. "I was unconscious. Your excuse?"

Hugo looked left and right and then to his left, a window.

"I suppose sorcerers can fly," said Hugo.

"Of course," snapped Scorpius. "I don't see how…" he trailed off as he saw where Hugo was looking and his face broke easily into a wicked grin. "I like how you think, Hugo. Hold on!"

He shouted his last words as he grabbed Hugo's arm and began to run towards the window.

Hugo braced for impact, but the window flew open before them, and then they were soaring over the grounds. For Hugo, who had never flown without a broom, it was both exhilarating and terrifying as he dangled just below Scorpius.

"I've gotta land!" shouted Scorpius, voice swept away almost as soon as he spoke. "To save some power."

And then they fell – or "rapidly descended from the sky," as Scorpius called it – rolling back on their feet and taking off as soon as they hit the ground.

Hugo could see the barrier getting closer and closer. It was like an illusion or a barrier of water, merging the world beyond the wards. They reached the barrier, and Hugo reached out, expecting to feel something liquid, but was met by a firm layer of something that felt more like glass.

Scorpius,who had encountered the same problem, drew back a fist and smacked his hand against the magic.

"I might be able to make a hole," said Scorpius. "Not very big though, and not for very long. You said you were a wizard?"

"Yes," said Hugo.

"Summon your vial the second I lift this, and I mean the second. This is really strong magic."

"The second," said Hugo nodding and fingering his wand.

"Three," said Scorpius nervously licking his lips. "Two."

"One," they said together, and Scorpius shoved upwards.

"_Accio_!" shouted Hugo**, **and the vial hit his hand, freezing and hard.

And then Hugo felt the crashing of the barriers around him, and Scorpius was on all fours, panting and completely soaked through with sweat as though he had just run a marathon.

Something was wrong though. Hugo could see the world outside as it was, instead of the distorted image he was already used to.

The wards had broken.

"Scorpius," said Hugo urgently shaking his friend, "the barriers are down. We've got to go. Dumbledore will have already…"

"Dumbledore will have already, what?" asked an interested voice.

Hugo looked up into bright blue eyes and half-moon spectacles, and he thought for a moment Aberforth had found him to take him home.

No such luck; Albus Dumbledore was standing before Hugo, wearing long robes that swayed around his ankles. And beside him, wearing a smug expression, stood Gellert Grindelwald.

"You," spat Scorpius.

"Me," said Dumbledore.

"Me," said Grindelwald.

"But…"Scorpius looked from Dumbledore to Grindelwald, horror moulding over his features. "Which of you is it?"

"We don't know!" laughed Grindelwald. "Isn't it fantastic?"

"What?" asked Hugo, all but ready to spring at Dumbledore and force the poison down him the second Scorpius gave the go-ahead.

"The time of refraction - the moment this world split from its path was when Ariana Dumbledore didn't die in the summer of 1899 and one of these two people caused it. The only question is, who?"

"Aberforth told me to poison his brother," offered Hugo, but Scorpius waved away the idea.

"Sibling rivalry does that. Enough poison for two?"

"No," said Hugo, rage building up inside him as Dumbledore and Grindelwald laughed. They knew that Hugo and Scorpius were helpless.

"You can do nothing," said Grindelwald, eyes lit up with sick joy. "Just as well. It's for the greater good you know."

"Don't count a sorcerer out until you've slit his wrists – we always have a backup plan," Scorpius spat at Grindelwald's feet as he turned to Hugo. "This is going to be a little odd," he warned. "I would ask whether you have a sister or something, but I guess we'll have to do."

And then he pressed his lips to Hugo's, and the world around them crumbled to pieces. Hugo pulled back, all the blood rushing to his head.

"What?"

"I enjoyed that more than I thought I would," said Scorpius wonderingly. "Huh, right? And I needed a distraction. Sorry, I used you."

He held up Hugo's vial of poison. It was empty.

Hugo stared from it to Scorpius, realisation flooding over him as Scorpius sank to the floor shaking.

"What's happening?" asked Hugo, a sob bubbling in his throat, and Scorpius smiled at him, fading into a background of burnt red and gold.

"Don't you _see_? I'm important," said Scorpius. "Maybe the most important. I can't die here. So the world is fixing itself around me. Say goodbye to empty skies," he said, and then he hadn't even been there at all.

.

_Fin_


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